Federal File

Dog Days of December

Amid all the analysis of how Congress and President Bush were able
to reach agreement on education matters last month, one negotiator has
been ignored: Splash.

The faithful canine companion to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.,
the chairman of the Senate education panel, was a regular attendee at
meetings to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

Rep. John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, the chairman of the House education
panel, called Splash, a Portuguese water dog, a "bright light" during
the difficult ESEA deliberations.

Rep. Boehner's name, meanwhile, has been bandied about as a
possibility for the job of Republican whip, the No. 3 position in the
current House GOP hierarchy.

That crucial vote-counting position will become vacant if, as is
widely expected, the current GOP whip, Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas, moves
up to House GOP leader.

But a spokesman for Mr. Boehner said he plans to remain in his
current post.

Asked to assign letter grades to President Bush and his Cabinet at a
lunch hosted last month by political activist Paul Weyrich, the
president of the Free Congress Foundation, 75 or so conservatives gave
Secretary of Education Rod Paige a C-minus.

Mr. Bush got a B. The more conservative Cabinet members got higher
grades. Mr. Weyrich said Mr. Paige "threw in the towel on issue after
issue on the education bill. The result is that we have billions more
for education without any real reforms that Bush said were
essential."

Mr. Paige's spokeswoman, Lindsey Kozberg, said the bill includes
"major, major strides."

"What did get into the bill were serious, unprecedented options for
parents," she said. "And we're going to pursue more options for
parents."